US (MO): Monsanto discuss GMO crops, ag issues

Honeybee health, the vegetable seed business and safety and testing procedures for biotechnology are among the topics to be covered during presentations from Monsanto Co. on Dec. 12 at Southeast Missouri State University.

The university's Horticulture Club invited representatives of the company to discuss "The Future of the American Food Chain: Healthy Plants = Healthy Planet." Three 50-minute sessions are planned, scheduled from 9 a.m. to noon in Academic Hall Auditorium, with question-and-answer sessions to follow.

Dr. Sven Svenson, associate professor of agribusiness and co-adviser to the Horticulture Club, will moderate the discussion along with Horticulture Club co-adviser Heidi Clark and officers of the club. The club organized the program, which is open to the public, after hearing about a similar program at Mineral Area College.

The discussion at Southeast will be a little different, said Svenson. The question-and-answer segment was included at request of the students.

"They see so much in printed press and so much on the Internet, so much of someone telling them what someone else said or did," he said. "You've got all this secondhand information. ... 'Can we hear from them directly?' That was the question."

Click here to read the complete articel at semissourian.com.